Maggie Valley budget workshop balances growth, recovery
Scrappy fiscal management has helped the tiny town of Maggie Valley survive sluggish FEMA reimbursements for the past 16 months.
File photo
As Maggie Valley rebuilds from Hurricane Helene and absorbs slow but steady residential growth, aldermen have begun shaping a 2026-27 fiscal year budget defined by guarded optimism, rising service costs and lingering storm obligations.
New Maggie Valley Town Manager Sam Cullen opened the workshop with a reminder that the board recently adopted a policy preventing the fund balance from dropping below 100% of annual expenditures — a common but informal goal for many of North Carolina’s smaller municipalities.
Last year’s audit placed the unassigned fund balance at 109.83%, or $4,717,245, leaving roughly $422,157 above the town’s required minimum with a recommended $25,000 cushion.
Current fund balance numbers appear even stronger, but Cullen warned they are misleading without context.
“There’s so many factors that go into that number. It might change today by $100. It might change today by $400,000,” said Cullen, appointed Jan. 2 after serving in Maggie Valley’s planning department and as assistant town manager. “General practice has been to use your previous year’s balance. I think if we got on a schedule using the 109% now, we’ll be in a bit better position each audit.”
Mayor Mike Eveland pressed for more frequent tracking so the board can monitor trends rather than snapshots. Cullen agreed to provide trend updates roughly quarterly, noting that FEMA reimbursements and loan activity distort real-time totals during the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene.
Related Items
This must be the place: Ode to the old man, ode to the game of golf
Do you like live music, barbeque?
Pisgah Conservancy expands Helene recovery efforts
Haywood hosts survival course
Helene’s long, dark financial shadow still stretches across the town ledger. Maggie Valley initially estimated $4.7 million in storm damage to town-owned infrastructure — on an annual budget of less than $4.3 million.
Some projects were outright rejected by FEMA, lowering the estimate substantially.
Like many municipalities still waiting on sluggish FEMA reimbursements, Maggie Valley is still waiting on $1.57 million, however the town has fared better than most — more than $708,000 in reimbursement payments have already been received, although of the eight payments the town has banked, the first didn’t come until more than a year after the storm. Some came in November and December of 2025, but the bulk of the payments in terms of dollars only recently arrived in January and February, more than 16 months after the storm.
While recovery expenses remain in motion, revenue projections do show incremental growth. The tax rate remains $0.40 per $100 of assessed value — the lowest in Haywood County.
Cullen said he’s not proposing an increase in the tax rate.
“The other thing that this particular board and this town should be proud of,” said Alderman Jim Owens, “is the position we’re in compared to our neighboring municipalities.”
Property tax revenue increased from $2,036,753 in 2024-25 to $2,107,755 in 2025-26 due to expansion of the tax base. The collection rate also rose from 97.57% to 98.6%, generating roughly $22,250 in additional realized revenue. Officials expect similar gains as new housing developments come online.
Personnel costs will rise slightly if current proposals stand. For 2025, the consumer price index rose 2.7%. That budget year, the town approved a 3% cost-of-living increase. For this year, Cullen has recommended a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment and a 1% merit increase beginning Jan. 1, 2027, with a first-year cost of approximately $9,600 as the town pilots a revised merit system.
No new staff or administration positions are requested this year, though Cullen indicated that a public services technician could be needed in the next budget cycle as internal promotions occur.
Capital equipment requests dominated much of the workshop discussion.
Public services needs include an $87,000 dump truck to be shared between public works and the wastewater treatment plant, a $30,000 salt spreader and snowplow setup, a $120,000 loader for the treatment plant, a $12,000 mower and a $53,000 F-250 replacement vehicle. It’s unlikely all will be funded.
Police department requests include a and body camera recording system for the interrogation room at approximately $11,000 per year for five years, a Ford Explorer Police Interceptor, a storm-response UTV and additional investigative cameras. Currently, there’s one camera near the roundabout that reads license plates, but there’s room for another at the west end of the valley.
“It tracks a lot of different things,” Cullen said. “For example, in January, 1.4 million cars passed the camera that we have at the roundabout — around 45,000 a day, and we can tell you what states they’re from. We can tell you a great deal of things.”
Modest fee increases also surfaced as a likely component of the recommended budget; the town currently charges $8 per month per customer for solid waste service while actual costs exceed $12 per month. Cullen proposed raising the monthly solid waste fee to $12, an annual increase of less than $48 per customer.
“We can’t continue to supplement that cost,” Cullen said.
Sewer user fees would increase 3.5%, moving the minimum from $20.30 to $21.01 per month under projections tied to an expiring engineering plan.
Beyond operations, the board reviewed ongoing and strategic projects. Town Hall plantings, small equipment purchases and completion of EV charging station components remain in progress. Strategic planning items include additional EV chargers at Sweet Briar and Town Hall as well as IT upgrades to replace aging server infrastructure.
A proposed renovation of the pavilion bathrooms became a flashpoint during the workshop, with aldermen weighing whether to move immediately using available fund balance or defer the expense into the formal budget cycle. [The roughly $41,500 project would bring the facilities into ADA compliance and address long-standing maintenance concerns, but it also had raised questions about timing and reserve discipline amid ongoing storm recovery costs.]
Alderman Tim Wise heard only approval when he suggested the town vote to transfer the money from fund balance at its next meeting so the town can avoid a budget impact in the upcoming budget and begin the project next winter.
Board-level priorities include improving or replacing existing park camera installations and a potential town hall parking lot repaving estimated around $200,000 — not for this year, but within the next few. Mayor Mike Eveland balked at the cost, and asked if instead, the lot could simply be painted or resealed.
“Painting is like putting lipstick on a pig,” said Public Works Director Seth Boyd. “It’s still a pig.”
The board took some time for further discussion of a capital improvement plan for the festival grounds, which remains a ways down the road.
Cullen will meet with department heads March 16 to refine projections. His recommended budget will be presented in April. By law, budgets must be passed before July 1 each year.
Alderman Phillip Wight did not attend the Feb. 23 workshop.
